Monday, May 22, 2017
I am grateful to have the opportunity to learn more about online education. As we educate our teachers we rs ealize that most of their students were born into a world of ipads, tablets and the internet. I have witnessed 2 year olds that know how to use a cellphone. If teachers are required to teach in a 21st century environment, we must prepare them to do so. I will say that the nature of our program may make it difficult for some of our students to develop the midset that will assist them in using technology in the classroom. Therfore, I believe that we must tread softly with those students and do what we can to assist our older students that are not tech savy. In my short tenure here, I have witnessed older students drop out of the program because of the fear of online learning. It is important that the lines of communication stay open for these students so that they feel supported.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree that we need to do our best to meet students where they are and give them the support they need to succeed in online courses. Online course, however, are not for everyone. It takes a real dedication and commitment to learn, and it helps a lot to be a self-driven person who can carve out the necessary time.
ReplyDeleteI think the technology part of it is something that is easily learned. I have certainly seen this regarding phone usage. Those who want to learn find ways to do it.
You make a good point that we have to be mindful of the students we are teaching. From this module, I really enjoyed learning the technology behind screencasting. I believe that this technology allows us to reach out especially to the kind of students you are citing here, Sharon. We can, step-by-step, walk them through the introduction to using a new technology.
ReplyDeleteHi Sharon,
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point about adult learners and technology. I didn't realize that they might drop out because of on-line learning fear ("OLLF") (I made that up!). When I took my first on-line course quite a while ago, I could never figure out if my uploaded work went through so I always emailed it as an attachment to the professor in addition to the upload. It made me feel better that I made all deadlines on time and without glitches. I have told my students at Trinity that if a file does not upload for whatever reason, to email it to me as an attachment. This helped with their anxiety over uploads.